Campaigners hoping to save HMS Plymouth say they remain confident of winning their battle to stop the ship from being scrapped.

The historic frigate is approaching Gibraltar after being towed out of Merseyside last week.

But protestors believe they can still save her - even if the vessel actually reaches Turkey, where she is set to be broken up.

The fight to save HMS Plymouth - on which Argentinian forces surrendered to end the Falklands conflict - is gathering pace as legal discussions continue over her future.

Laurence Sharpe-Stevens, director of the HMS Plymouth Trust, said the signs were encouraging as his team hopes to stop the ship before it reaches Turkey.

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He also revealed the team fighting to save the frigate’s future had set up legal talks with people in Turkey, meaning the ship may be saved even if it reaches the eastern Mediterranean.

Mr Sharpe-Stevens, who served on board HMS Plymouth while in the Navy, said: “Although everybody was concerned and thought it was over when she left Peel’s care, we are delighted she has left because it’s really brought things to a head... we are trying to negotiate something before she reaches Turkey, if that fails then things are already put in place in Turkey. We are working ahead of the game.”

He added newspaper and television appeals had been put out to ex-pats in Gibraltar and across the Mediterranean to report sightings of HMS Plymouth as the rescue campaign becomes a “24 hour live event”.

As news spread of the ship’s departure from Merseyside last week, campaigners raised £5,000 in just 18 hours to fund legal action to halt what may be her final journey.

If successful, they claim the former Royal Navy ship could actually be “arrested” by a current Royal Navy vessel.

The HMS Plymouth Trust dispute ownership of the frigate, which Peel Ports signed a deal to scrap in 2012.

In a statement last week, Peel Ports said it was sympathetic to the ship’s history but had no “practical choice” other than to dispose of her.

A spokesman said: “We have no expertise in the preservation and restoration of historic ships and given the fact that she is deteriorating further at berth, the group feels, reluctantly, we have no practical choice but to dispose of her responsibly.”